Only Took 20+ Years

This is a monumental day for the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA. Let me tell you why.

Approximately 20 years ago (I have to look up the exact year) our chapter started to prepare to put two register boxes out along our section of the trail. The chapter south of us has them. The chapter north of us has them. Chapters all along the entire 4800 miles of trail have them. But, until today, we did not.

I won't go into all the reasons why, but it all began with a political decision by someone higher up the food chain in the Forest Service who decided we couldn't do this. We've been negotiating ever since. Seriously, the volunteer who made the boxes has even died! Van, if you are watching, I hope you are happy to see your beautiful cedar boxes finally appear along the trail.

Pete and Bill are installing the box on the post. And Pete added the baffle to try to keep critters out (mice love to chew up the books and make nests).

This was actually the third thing we accomplished on this trail work day. The second part was getting the "Private Property" signs up on the section of the trail I talked about in the link below. The family officially has signed paperwork allowing the trail passage, and these great signs provided by the National Park Service hopefully help people to understand that they should stay on the trail and respect our privilege to pass through.

And before that... we spent a bit over 2 hours working with some Forest Service staff to remove invasive species. We are now approved to do so without their direct supervision. Dan is weilding our new and violent brush cutter. It can take out things almost up to 3" in diameter. Here, he's working on a Tatarian Honeysuckle.

We cut stuff and painted the cut stumps with herbicide. You've seen me doing a lot of this at my house.

There were 7 of us working for those two hours. Even so, it's slow going. One has to find all the trees and shrubs, big or small, cut them off really near the ground, treat the cut ends, move the branches off the trail. We tried to get everything within 10 feet of the trail. But walking back, we found even more that we missed. This is just one pile of cut brush.

I left home at 7 am, and got home just in time to shower and make it to a meeting in Ludington at 3 pm.

Nothing else happened today. This was plenty, and I'm going to go lie down very soon.

I tried to estimate the total walking and separate it from the walking on the actual NCT. We had to carry the posts and the digger a fair distance for the 2nd and 3rd projects. Dan left us after the second part and went off a different place to mow a section of trail. It takes a lot of work to keep a trail in nice shape.

Total miles walked 4.6, with 3.0 of them being NCT in various places.

Miles walked in 2026: 186.6
NCT Hike 100 Challenge: 63

See Slightly Out of Focus

Mostly Confidence Camp Prep

The day began with taking Tara back to the trail fairly early in the morning. No rain- hooray!

But the entire rest of the day was getting ready for Confidence Camp. I had to hustle back from dropping off Tara because Doug was coming to make sure we have a driveable lane back to the campsite. Mostly that meant getting rid of autumn olive. (Now, this method is efficient!)

I had a very minimal amount of work that I thought would accomplish what I needed. Doug said, "I'm your equipment guy! If I come over, I'm doing it right."

And he did, of course. He pretty much created a nice clear packed lane.

It continues back through the trees,

and ends up at the open space where we will set up the campsite. Mostly for access to deliver the porta-potty, but I'll need to drive back there to deliver the picnic tables and other gear. We have the use of a four-wheeler for the week which we will use to bring meals out from the house.

A man and his toy.

Then in the afternoon, Cathy and I went out to explore a section of National Forest where the final field exercise of Confidence Camp will be held. I needed to be sure it was going to work well. I'd selected it from a forest map based on some requirements I wanted, and it's not perfect, but it's close by and will do the job. I've already scouted out the other location where we will do a field exercise.

Between going to the woods and walking out to the campsite four times, I walked a fair amount.

Miles walked in 2026: 152.4

Some old roads in the National Forest and out to Confidence Camp four times: 3.5 miles

See Two Picnic Tables

One Dang Autumn Olive Bites the Dust

Woo hoo! I finished cutting down that one big autumn olive I showed you the few remaining trunks of a few days ago. I raked the area where it had dropped all its leaves and killed any other vegetation.

I cut up the larger trunks for campfire wood. It's not the greatest. It's a soft wood like aspen. But I checked just to be sure it doesn't give off toxic smoke or anything. I wouldn't put it past this noxious plant. But it's ok to burn.

I treated all those cut stumps with the Tordon. Bright blue was just treated today. I put it on right while the cut is fresh. That blue-ish one on the left was treated a few days ago.

And what is my magical wand for getting at least this done? I bought a cordless pruner. Took me all summer to look at brands and decide what I wanted. This is Greenworks brand. It was purchased primarily because it's not too big for my hands. So far, I'm happy. The company makes over 100 tools that all take the same battery pack (so the inventory is expandable), and I got this on sale.

Now go back and look at the first picture again. See what's behind where this bush was? See what's beside where this bush was? More autumn olive.

In other news, I worked really hard today at necessary tasks- computer, editing, this yard stuff, kitchen cleanup. I hereby pat myself on the back.

See Before It Turns White

Before it Turns White

As far as I can tell from looking at posts on Facebook, everyone else in West Michigan got snow. It hasn't showed up here yet. Maybe tonight. Actually, they've upped the snowfall total for us for tomorrow. Whatever.

But I want to show you the last of the color around my yard. I trimmed the forsythia. It needs to be done at least every other year or it turns into a monster. It's not hugely colorful, but I like the yellow and maroonish layers.

Are you wondering if that renegade marigold ever bloomed? It tried SO hard, but it didn't quite make it. I covered it diligently every night for about two weeks, but this is the best it could do. A little yellow in the bud.

I want to show you the rock garden one more time because I am loving how deep red the elecombeanum sedum got this year. Some patches of light-colored foliage are also hanging on, so it looks quite nice for mid November.

And my maple tree? After doing practically nothing about getting autumnesque for weeks and weeks, it suddenly turned orange! I decided to verify what kind of maple it is. Back when I replanted this tiny sapling, really just a two-leaf cotyledon, I didn't know enough to really choose wisely as to the species. Now, I was afraid to learn that I've carefully nurtured a Norway maple for 35 years, and that is considered alien and invasive. I know there are some Norway maples in the cemetery in addition to the sugar maples, so... yikes!

But I checked it out. It can be difficult to tell the two apart, but there are a few "tricks." I'm pretty confident that this is a sugar maple.

Finally, and this has nothing to do with color, here's an autumn olive. On its way out! I've been working on this one large specimen with my new power pruner. Just have these remaining large trunks, and I should be able to get them cut to ground level this week. I'm treating the stumps with Tordon (a salt of 2,4-D which makes it legal- this is serious stuff), and every one that I cut and treated with this last year has not come back.

I'd like to say I made real progress on this menace in my kingdom this year, but I'll have to settle for moderate success. I cut back nearly a whole row of it by hand in the back yard, and you Can't Even Tell. But I'll keep after it. I'ts immensely easier with power tools.

There are ones by the driveway and the kitchen door that we cut every single cotton-pickin' year. Omer usually does these. We used to treat the stumps with Roundup, but that only slowed the stuff down. This Tordon seems to really work.

Almost everything I worked on today seems to have something that isn't going quite right. Just need to keep after them, and they'll get sorted out.

See The Color is Yellow

Those Sedums I Ordered by Mail

I'm always on a quest to find hardy, colorful sedums I like that I don't yet own. I'm most impressed with the 'Sunsparkler' varieties, and there are still a few of those I'd like, but those will also probably need to be ordered. I've seen a couple of the choices at Garden Solutions.

Meanwhile, I found two varieties that I didn't have, both from the same seller on eBay so that saved postage. Even so, there are no bargain plants when you order them this way. However, the plants came through exceptionally well packaged and larger than is usually the case, so I was fairly pleased.

I got these in May. They are growing slowly but nicely, and both look healthy. The first one will get medium tall and has bright pink-purple flowers. New growth isn't as purple, but as they mature the stems and leaves get dark. The rock garden can take a few taller plants, particularly by the retaining wall. Things by the wall also have to be able to stand some serious heat. The afternoon sun bounces off the wall and will fry anything delicate beside it. (Shasta daisies were a no-go there.) So this is Sedum 'Oriental Dancer.'

The other new one isn't quite what I expected. It's larger and coarser than I envisioned, but I'm certain I can find a place I like it. Maybe not where it is now, but that's fine. This is apparently a 'Sunsparkler' cultivar, but I'm not sure it's one they support any more. They seem to have dropped some of the ones that aren't the fastest growing. I think this will also get taller than I thought. It's called 'Blue Pearl.' It's also less blue than the pictures right now. In fact, it doesn't look much like the pictures. That doesn't mean it's the wrong thing. Sometimes it takes a while for plants to reach a growth stage that is the one promoted. Anyway, it's happy, and it's something different.

BONUS SECTION: piles of infamy

This is just 15 minutes worth of trimming autumn olive. I'm sure I got the flat tire trying to get too close to these bushes yesterday. I'm determined to make a dent in beating back the autumn olive this year. Tomorrow I'll drag the piles out of the yard.

In other news: I mowed more- everything near the house is done. That is not to say the edges are trimmed. I weeded in the rock garden- it's going very slowly. I should have tried to do it once before I went to NY, and now it's out of control. I edited and did computer stuff.

See Sedum Odds and Ends

A-grrrr-essive Plants

I finally got the pieces together (and the weather contributed its piece by not being too hot) to start mowing. Discovered that in just the time I've been gone that a grapevine decided it should own the lawnmower.

Don't think it was content with that one little tendril. Oh, no! It was already getting serious about tying down the entire engine.

Here's one of the reasons I need to get cracking on the mowing. I like the big bluestem grass in the back field, but if it gets a foothold in the lawn that will be a problem because it grows in big coarse clumps.

The grapevine is funny. The autumn olive is not. I managed to mow five swaths and realized that a front tire on the mower was completely flat and trying to come off the wheel. At least it turned out to be fairly easy to remove the wheel. That little aggressive plant cost me $45.00. One of the thorns had punctured the tire.

Also, it took time to get it fixed. So I managed to mow two lawn sections after it was repaired. Other than that, I edited and did errands and a bit of computer stuff.

Hopefullly, more mowing tomorrow.

See Also Known as Turkeyfoot

Cheers to Lucky Sevens

Ha! It's Diet Coke... I don't drink anything stronger. But here's a toast to two lucky sevens in my upcoming year, and another for the first 70-degree day of the year (although that is a little warm for me). Actually, I didn't do anything particularly special for my birthday, but there is a lot of satisfaction in the little pleasures.

For example, I'm going to share the evolution of the rock garden reclamation. This is a picture taken today that is straight-on from the back yard. Sorry, it's not filled with color yet, even green, because things seem to be coming to life slowly this year. That said... I'm working on it earlier than I have in the past two years. Some spaces can be carefully weeded since I have a pretty good idea of what is in them.

And on April 27, 2024. Last year, the flowers were about 2 weeks ahead of this year, and this is a tighter shot. But I guess I wasn't regularly taking a picture from that angle last year. For example, the moss phlox is blooming in this picture. This year, it's barely greening up yet.

October 24, 2023

In the spring of 2023 it was a grass covered mess. I began trying to reclaim it in June of that year.



Trying to make something of this mess brings me so much joy!

And here's a horrible job that, even so, brings me joy to see progress. I got one (of at least 25) complete autumn olive cut out and treated with Targon. All the stumps that I treated with it last year have not resprouted.

Mostly, for gifts, I asked for and received money to go toward working on the rock garden.

No hike today, but I think there will be one in a couple of days.

See Birthday 2024

Almost Before

 Here's the afternoon sky. They are predicting the first snow of the season for tonight. Does this look like snow clouds? Not sure, but I like the lighting.

If we get snow, it's not going to last.

I found out about an herbicide from a friend that supposedly really kills the autumn olive. Roundup, when put on the cut stumps only slows it down. In about 3 years, it's back. However, this one, Tordon, motivates me a lot more effectively since it apparently really kills the stuff.

I'm going to keep working on the hedges of it that now surround our yard this fall until the weather becomes too big an issue. I like it cool for doing the hard work of sawing and hauling.

This is an "almost before" picture because I didn't think to take one before I had cut out several of the trees. There is a picture of this area from the other direction in the link in the footer. It will also motivate me to do enough work on this that you will be able to see a difference when I decide to do an "after," or at least a "partway" picture.

The hole is a garden pond I dug, and actually had water in one year. The deer and Maggie punched holes in the too lightweight liner, and I never could afford to get a sturdier one. But, ever the optimist, I don't want to fill it in... just in case. I'm not dead yet, right!?

The larger tree, right of center, is a mulberry that gets to stay. Near center back are the maple I told you I planted 30 years ago and some quaking aspen. Behind them you can see the white pine that I blogged about last year. It was 4 inches tall in 1992, because I ran over it with the mower. Almost everything else is autumn olive. Will I get it all this year? Heck no. But I'm going to try to make a dent.

The autumn olive is alleopathic which means it kills other plants that try to grow near it. I'm hoping that the aspen clone will reassert itself if I kill this horrible stuff.

It was a heavy, heavy editing day. I'm working on some of my own stuff too. And still contemplating the next few chapters of Vacation from DMS.

See I want my garden back

Fighting Invasives all Day

 
It was a truly gorgeous day here, and I decided I wanted to spend it working around outside.

One of my goals was to get my fire ring reclaimed from the autumn olive bushes- see link below. There's a shadow from the tree trunk, but you can see my little grill sitting there in the middle. I got enough cut down that if I now spend some more time with a rake and shovel to clear away the leaves and redig the pit, it should be good to go.



I didn't take a before picture, but it looked just like this, which is the next row back. It is SO much work to remove these nasty things.



And I pulled a bunch more garlic mustard. Both the autumn olive and the garlic mustard are allelopathic. That means they give off chemicals that retard the growth of anything else. You can see how there is very little underneath the shrubs in the picture above.

There is less consensus on how strong this effect is with the garlic mustard, but take a look at this space where I pulled it up. Almost nothing is growing there. A few small violet clumps were hiding.



This little guy is not alien, but he's not allowed to grow on my property. One cute little poison ivy that I must have missed before. It's gone now.



I also cut some tatarian honeysuckle. So much horrible crap wants to grow here.

Had three ticks- all still crawling and easily dispatched.

Got a lot accomplished, but there is SO much more to be done. I never have enough mental stamina to keep up with this place.

There is no other news.

See Fire Grilled Burgers

First and Second Snow - Winter 2019-2020

 
I have to take a break from the Meijer Garden because we got our first real snow of the winter today. It was gorgeous.



The first actual snow was on November 1. That was just enough to whiten the grass. Still, I always like the first. Last year's first snow was November 9.



The snow today was fluffy and collected on everything. Even autumn olive berries are attractive against pure white.



The cemetery edge does not disappoint.



I'll take you back to the Gardens another day.

In other news: I wrote in the morning and worked on formatting in the afternoon. Very productive.

	See First Snow 2018-2019
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